Qualifier 2 comes with drama built into it already in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with the winners going through to the final and on Friday, some more intrigue was sprinkled on it even before the start of the match. Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill spun the coin during the toss and his Rajasthan Royals counterpart called for heads. The match referee Prakash Bhatt, however, indicated to Parag that he couldn’t hear the call before picking up the coin.
IPL QUALIFIER 2, GT VS RR | FOLLOW LIVE
He didn’t allow the camera to focus on the coin but it was clearly visible that it had landed on Tails, which would’ve meant a win for Gill. Instead, Bhatt asked the coin to be spun again. Parag called Heads once more and this time, he had called it right. Parag chose to bat first and Gill admitted in his interview with Ravi Shastri that he would’ve chosen to do the same.
“We would have batted first as well. 40 overs of play has already been [played] on the wicket and we didn’t think it’s gonna change much, but unfortunately, I don’t think the referee heard the call from Riyan,” he said.
The incident was absent in the video of the toss that the IPL put out on its social media handles:
🚨Toss update from New Chandigarh 🚨@rajasthanroyals won the toss and elected to bat first against @gujarat_titans
Updates ▶️ https://t.co/eupS8cBPc2#TATAIPL | #Qualifier2 | #TheFinalLeap | #GTvRR pic.twitter.com/VuLXsWl9Ih
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 29, 2026
Parag said that RR are unchanged, despite stating that several players, including himself, are “hanging by a thread” in regards to their fitness. Gill, meanwhile, said that GT have brought back spinner Sai Kishore.
While RR were off to a flying start batting first in the Eliminator earlier this week against Sunrisers Hyderabad, largely thanks to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, it wasn’t quite the case this time around. Sooryavanshi’s opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal fell off just the fourth ball of the match while Dhruv Jurel, who had scored an impressive 50 of 21 balls in the last match, was dismissed the very next over.
Teams:
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (c), Donovan Ferreira, Dasun Shanaka, Ravindra Jadeja, Jogra Archer, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma, Yash Raj Punja.
Gujarat Titans: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj
